Politics under the Influence

"You know just how serious a problem alcoholism has become for our country. Frankly speaking, it has taken on the proportions of a national disaster." So spoke Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009 as the government launched its latest anti-alcohol campaign. Challenging the standard narrative of top-down implementation of policy, Anna Bailey’s Politics under the Influence breaks new ground in the analysis of Russian alcoholism and the politics of the Putin regime.

The state is supposed to make policy in the national interest, to preserve the nation’s health against the ravages inflicted by widespread alcohol abuse. In fact, Bailey shows, the Russian state is deeply divided, and policy is commonly a result of the competitive interactions of stakeholders with vested interests. Politics under the Influence turns a spotlight on the powerful vodka industry whose ties to Putin’s political elite have grown in influence since 2009. She details how that lobby has used the anti-alcohol campaign as a way to reduce the competitiveness of its main rival—the multinational beer industry. Drawing on a wide range of sources including fieldwork interviews, government documents, media articles, and opinion polls, Bailey reveals the many ambivalences, informal practices, and paradoxes in contemporary Russian politics. Politics under the Influence exhibits the kleptocratic nature of the Putin regime; as a result, analysis of vested interests and informal sources of power is essential to understanding public policy in contemporary Russia. This book will be an invaluable resource for anyone working on policy and corruption in Putin’s Russia.

Introduction: The Contradictions of Alcohol Policy1. Feeding the State: Vodka from Tsarism to Communism2. Soviet Policy Doublethink3. The Parasites Feed: State Capture under Yeltsin4. Regaining State Control under Putin5. The Judo Gang: Informal Networks and Perceptions of Power6. An All-Powerful Regulator7. Beer: The New Pretender on the Russian Alcohol Market8. The Brewer's Nemesis in the Duma9. "Vodka Is Our Enemy, but Who Said We're Afraid of Enemies?"10. From Illegality to Demography: Alcohol Policy Paradigms11. The New Antialcohol Network12. Medveded and the Antialcohol Initiative13. Alcohol Policy as Battleground: The 2011 Alcohol Law14. The Campaign is Over, but the Battle ContinuesConclusion: What Alcohol Tells Us about Russian PoliticsAppendix 1: Methodology and Research MethodsAppendix 2: List of Respondents and Statements in the Public DomainAppendix 3: List of Interview QuestionsNotesBibliography

Politics under the Influence

"Anna Bailey’s book is relaxed and readable. Her concepts are clear, there is no unnecessary jargon, and provides the reader with substantively rich, well-documented insights into the realm of Russian alcohol-policymaking."

- Mark Schrad, Villanova University

Politics under the Influence

"Anna Bailey’s high-quality book helps us understand how formal and informal sources of power combine to produce the outcomes we see in the world. Her insights are relevant to courses on post-communist politics, economic development, and policy making and implementation."